


Finding You

by hquinzelle



Series: It's All About You [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Winter Soldier - Fandom
Genre: F/M, WinterShock - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-01-23 17:38:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1574045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hquinzelle/pseuds/hquinzelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve is still looking for Bucky, but he isn't the only one.  Darcy can't stop thinking about Bucky and hoping she will see him again - but as they say, be careful what you wish for.</p><p>Sequel to Watching for You.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Darcy closed her laptop and leaned back in her chair. She had just finished re-reading everything that had been in SHIELD’s files about the Winter Soldier. She flipped open the file Natasha had compiled for Steve (which she had “borrowed”) and took out the picture of Bucky Barnes in his uniform from the 1940’s, looking at it for a moment before she placed it back where it belonged.

The SHIELD data, combined with the data in the file, did not paint a very flattering picture of the Winter Soldier. On paper, he was a cold-blooded, ruthless assassin who, until recently, never failed to complete a mission. If she hadn’t met him and seen the anguish and lost look in his eyes, she never would have believed that the Winter Soldier and the man she had met a few weeks ago were the same person.

Despite her protests, Steve had sent Darcy back to New York the day after Bucky had jumped out of the hotel room window. Steve and Sam had stayed in Washington, D.C. for another week, but the trail had gone cold, so they came back. Steve had thrown himself back into his work, and life pretty much continued as normal, except Darcy had a lot more interaction with Sam and Steve then she had before, even hanging out with them occasionally after a mission or at a party held by Tony Stark.

Darcy jumped, startled, when her alarm went off. She looked over at her clock and cursed – she was late for work. She rubbed her eyes as she stood up and moved towards the kitchen to start the coffee brewing. Coffee was essential - she hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, and she could already feel that it was going to be a very long day.

Her priority for the day, of course, was returning the file she had “borrowed” from Steve without him noticing it had been gone in the first place.

* * *

 

Darcy tried to look nonchalant, not suspicious, as she moved down the hall towards Steve’s office. She had asked Jarvis for everyone’s schedules earlier, not wanting to rouse suspicion by specifically asking for Steve’s. Steve was supposed to be meeting with the newly reformed World Security Council for the next few hours.

She walked straight into Steve’s office like she belonged there and moved quickly over to his desk to put the file back. She opened the drawer and pulled the file out of the stack of folders she was carrying; she was just about to place it back where it belonged when she heard the distinct noise of the door clicking shut.

Darcy winced internally as she looked up to see none other than Steve Rogers standing there, his arms crossed. He looked more curious than angry.

“Darcy,” Steve asked, “What are you doing?”

Darcy thought about dropping the file and pretending she didn’t know what he was talking about, but discarded that idea. She didn’t want to lie to Steve. When he walked over to her and held out his hand, she placed the file into it.

His mouth tightened when he saw what file it was.

“I thought as much,” he said as he placed the file on the desk. “I noticed the file was missing yesterday – you saw me put it away, so I figured it was you. I told Jarvis to tell you I was in a meeting right now so I could see what you would do.”

“Why did you take it?” he asked, looking up at her.

Darcy was mortified to feel herself actually blush. She sank down into Steve’s chair – which was _not_ as comfortable as it looked – and closed her eyes.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

Darcy took a deep breath before continuing, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since I came back to New York. I keep remembering the look on his face when he said he didn’t know who he was.”

She felt Steve sit on the desk next to her and looked up at him as he placed his hand on her shoulder, as if to reassure her.

Darcy got up and moved away from him. She walked over to the windows and hugged herself as she gazed unseeingly at the New York skyline.

“I wanted to know more about him,” she said, “I read everything that SHIELD had on him. It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Then I remembered seeing that file on your desk one day when you forgot to put it away before I came in. I saw where you put it, so I snuck in here after you left last night and borrowed it.”

“You read it,” Steve said.

Darcy nodded.

“I wish I hadn’t. I know he was brainwashed, but the things he did…”

The office was silent for a moment as both of them were lost in their thoughts.

Finally she heard Steve stand up.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Darcy turned to look at him, surprised at the abrupt change of subject. “Umm…I guess?” she said.

“Grab your purse and meet me downstairs,” he said, “We’ll go to dinner, my treat.”

He opened up the office door and motioned for her to go out.

Darcy pointed to her pocket as she walked past him. “I just need to get my coat; I have my wallet right here.”

“Alright then,” Steve said, “Do you like Italian? I know this little place in Brooklyn…”

* * *

 

Darcy didn’t think she had ever experienced so many emotions in such a short span of time. Steve had spent the last few hours telling her stories about Bucky – from when they grew up together, to how he saved Bucky’s life when he was captured by the Red Skull, to their adventures as Howling Commandos. The one part that he glossed over was when Bucky died – he didn’t say much about it, and she didn’t ask.

“I guess that’s about everything,” Steve finished, sitting back in his chair, “I just wanted you to see that there was more to Bucky than was contained in that file.”

He looked sad for a moment as he continued, “Sam once told me that whoever Bucky once was, he didn’t think that the man he was today was the kind you saved – he was the kind you stopped. I refuse to believe that. He saved my life in D.C. for a reason, and I like to think that reason was because he realized I was more than a mission.”

“He must remember something,” Darcy said, “After all, he was at the exhibit.”

Steve nodded as he said, “I just hope I can find him again and convince him to finally let me help him. He wasn’t wrong about Hydra looking for him – he was their most valuable asset, and they want him back.”

“I thought most of Hydra had been wiped out?” Darcy asked.

“Cut off one head and two more will take its place,” Steve answered, “I have a feeling we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.”

He motioned the waiter over and took care of the check.

He stood up from the table and said, “I’m just afraid that if they find him and brainwash him again, he will never remember. Dr. Banner told me that it is possible, although unlikely, that he might have brain damage already– an aftereffect of being constantly put into cryo and taken out combined with the brainwashing.”

Darcy grabbed her coat and followed Steve as he moved towards the door, not giving her a chance to reply. He held the door open for her as they stepped out into the cold December air.

“Do you want me to take you home?” Steve asked, “It will be dark soon.”

“No,” Darcy answered, “I actually don’t live too far from here. Walking will clear my head.”

She patted her coat pocket. “Besides, I have my trusty taser with me.”

Steve smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He moved to hail a cab.

“Steve,” Darcy called as his cab pulled up. He turned to look at her and she said, “Thank You.”

He nodded and got into the cab. Darcy stood outside the restaurant and watched it disappear into the distance, then turned and walked away, her hands in her coat pockets to keep warm. She shivered – winter was coming.

She had only walked a block or so when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she got the distinct feeling she was being watched. She stopped in front of a store display and tried to look left and right without being noticed, but didn’t see anything unusual. Was Bucky following her? He was the only person she could think of that could possibly have a reason to do so.

She didn’t see anyone, so she continued down the street, looking back every now and then to see if she was being tailed. She was just starting to think she had been imagining things when suddenly, her arm was grabbed, and she was pulled into an alley.

A hand covered her mouth, and a gruff voice whispered in her ear, “Quiet. You’re being followed.”

Darcy breathed a little easier as she recognized the cool metal of the hand over her mouth and the voice; it was Bucky.

Her eyes widened – if Bucky wasn’t the one who was following her, who was?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry, but not sorry, about the "Winter is coming" line. I couldn't resist.
> 
> I'm still overwhelmed by the response to the first work in this series, Watching for You - thank you so much for the comments and kudos. I hope the sequel fulfills your expectations.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy learns who has been following her.

Bucky pulled Darcy deeper into the alley, careful not to make any noise. 

“I’m going to take my hand off of your mouth.  Do you promise to be quiet?” he asked.

Darcy nodded, and he lowered his hand.  His body behind her was tense, and she could feel the buckles of his outfit pressing into her back.  He was in full Winter Solder mode, which didn’t bode well for the people following them – following her, that is.

“I lost her,” a voice said outside the alley.  A man wearing a black tactical suit stood near the alley entrance, speaking into his phone.

“Where are you?” a disembodied voice asked on the other end of the line. 

“Outside an alley on…”

The man outside the alley – Darcy dubbed him Nameless Goon Number 1 - was interrupted by the man on the other end of the line (Nameless Goon in Charge). 

“Please tell me that you don’t have me on speaker phone while you stand outside an alley in which the target could potentially be hiding.”

“No, of course not,” Nameless Goon Number 1 said guiltily.

“When I tell you to, cover your ears and close your eyes,” Bucky said, his eyes on Nameless Goon Number 1. 

He let her go, and Darcy moved even deeper back into the alley, praying she wouldn’t trip over anything.

Nameless Goon Number 1 listened to something Nameless Goon in Charge said (he must have turned off the speaker phone, because Darcy couldn’t hear what it was), then ended the call.  He put his phone into one pocket and moved into the alley as he pulled a wicked looking knife from his belt.  He wasn’t even trying to be stealthy  - as Nameless Goon in Charge had said, if she was hiding in the alley, she knew he was coming.

 “Now,” Bucky said, pulling _two_ knives from his belt and flipping them in anticipation. 

Nameless Goon Number 1’s eyes widened in fear as he heard Bucky.  He couldn’t see exactly where Bucky was in the dim light, but he could hear the threat in his voice.  He stepped back, now on the defense.

Darcy desperately wanted to see what was going to happen, but she did as Bucky had asked.  Sometime later – it could have been seconds, it could have been minutes - Bucky touched her arm to let her know it was over.

She lowered her hands and opened her eyes.  Bucky was standing directly in front of her, blocking her view of the rest of the alley. 

He held his hand out.  “Your cell phone.”

“What?  I just replaced the _first_ one you fried!” Darcy protested.

“We can be tracked using the GPS in your phone,” he answered. 

“Just don’t kill it again, okay?” she asked as she gave him the phone, knowing this was a battle she wouldn’t win.

He ignored her, activating the EMP pulse from his arm before throwing the now useless phone to the ground.  It landed near the mouth of the alley – next to another cell phone lying where she had last seen Nameless Goon Number 1, its screen cracked.

“We need to move, now, before anyone notices he is missing,” Bucky said, holding his hand out again so she could take it.

Darcy stayed where she was, unable to get the sight of Nameless Goon Number 1’s cracked cell phone out of her head.

“You killed him,” she said flatly.

“We don’t have time for this,” Bucky said impatiently.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you killed him.”  Darcy said, crossing her arms.

Bucky growled in frustration before answering, “He was Hydra.  I will answer your questions later, but for now, we need to _move_.”

Darcy stared at him.  _Hydra_ was following her?  Why?  She wasn’t anybody special – she was just an intern!  Yeah, she had some very important friends, but that alone shouldn’t have put her on their radar.

He practically dragged her out of the alley as she finally took his hand.  She struggled to keep up as he moved down the street and herded her into another alley, where a black SUV was waiting, its engine idling.  He had apparently seen where Nameless Goon Number 1 had come from and wanted to eliminate any other potential threats.

The passenger and driver’s side doors to the SUV opened and two men, also in tactical suits, stepped out, guns already firing.  She heard people screaming and running in the street behind them as they heard the gunfire start. 

Darcy’s survival instinct kicked in when a bullet whizzed by her ear, and she threw herself to the ground and rolled under the SUV, making herself less of a target. 

She knew Bucky probably wouldn’t have wanted her to see what was happening, but he had other things to worry about right now, so she watched the scene unfolding in front of her from her vantage point under the vehicle.

Bullets struck Bucky in the chest more than once (there was no blood, so he must have some sort of protection on), but he didn’t even flinch as he reached behind his back and drew his own gun.  Darcy saw him fire, then heard three thuds as the bodies of the men fell, one of them hitting the ground next to her.

Darcy screamed.  Bucky reached under the SUV and pulled her out.  He looked her up and down, checking for injuries, then motioned for her to get into the passenger seat of the vehicle once he was satisfied she was unharmed. 

When she just stood there, staring at the body, he picked her up, opened the passenger door, and put her in the seat like she was nothing more than a rag doll.  As he buckled her seat belt he grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him.

“I need you to stay with me,” he said.

Darcy took a shaky breath and nodded, trying to calm herself down.  She could hear sirens in the distance – someone must have called the cops – and knew they didn’t have much time before the police got there.

Bucky slammed her door, then moved quickly to the driver’s side and got in, not bothering to buckle his own seatbelt.  He could get a ticket for that, Darcy thought deliriously. 

He threw the car into drive and pulled out into the street, causing more than one car to swerve to avoid him. 

Darcy said a small prayer to whatever god that was listening (hopefully not Loki, who would revel in the chaos) as he weaved in and out of traffic.  She had no idea how Bucky was going to get them out of this situation – not only did he need to somehow avoid the police, but if this vehicle belonged to Hydra, she was pretty sure they had a tracking device located in the vehicle somewhere. 

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.  Full night had just fallen, and the lights from the street outside illuminated his face.  The dark look in his eyes – he seemed to go from emotionless to full of rage, with no middle ground - made him very frightening as he looked back and forth between the road in front of them and their pursuers in the distance, and she had to remind herself that he was on her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for the kudos and comments - it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I read each one. I have even gotten ideas from some of the comments! 
> 
> I am on Tumblr under the same user name, hquinzelle. I mostly post Tom Hiddleston and Tasertricks fan fiction, but I have been obsessed with the Winter Soldier since I saw the movie, so there is now a lot of him too :).


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The (relative) calm before the storm. Bucky and Darcy escape from Hydra, and Darcy gets answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A much longer chapter than usual, to make up for the lack of updates.

Darcy looked behind them as Bucky slowed down and moved into the regular flow of traffic. Police cars, lights flashing and sirens blaring, pulled up in front of the alley where the shooting took place. A pedestrian ran up to one of the cars before the officers could even get out, waving his arms and shouting as he pointed down the street in the direction they had gone.

She lost sight of the alley as Bucky turned down another main street, but was still able to hear the sirens start again as the police renewed their search.

Unfortunately for them, the police cars turned the corner just as they reached a residential area and traffic started to thin out.

“There’s no way they could have known that we turned down this particular street,” Darcy said, “There’s dozens of other routes we could have taken.”

“The men in those vehicles are not NYPD; more likely, they are Hydra, and are tracking us,” Bucky said, confirming what Darcy had suspected earlier about the tracking device in the vehicle.

The police – real or not - were now close enough that Darcy could see blue and red lights reflecting on the windshield in front of her.

A garbage truck was moving down the street and was about to reach the entrance to one of the side streets.

“When I stop, get out of the vehicle and follow me,” Bucky said as he cut in front of the garbage truck, which had just stopped to pick up trash and was momentarily blocking their pursuer’s view.

Darcy unbuckled her seat belt as he suddenly stopped and turned off the vehicle. The two of them had jumped out and started to run before the engine had even turned over.

Darcy struggled to keep up to Bucky as he weaved through the narrow alley behind the row houses towards the next street. She heard car doors slamming behind them and the sound of pursuing footstep.

“You know,” she gasped out, “If you hadn’t destroyed my phone, we could be calling for help right now.”

“I’ve got the situation under control,” Bucky said tersely.

It wasn’t fair, Darcy thought – she felt like she was going to pass out, and he didn’t even sound like he was out of breath. If she survived this, she was definitely going back to the gym every day.

Bucky seemed to sense that she couldn’t make it much further. When they passed a small community vegetable garden, he opened the lock on the gate with his cybernetic arm, ushered her through, and then relocked it behind them. They hurried through the garden and had just made it behind the tool shed when their pursuers came into sight.

Bucky pulled out his gun and waited while Darcy tried to catch her breath without giving away their position.

The men didn’t even consider checking the vegetable garden, instead continuing down the street.

Bucky waited until the sound of their footsteps faded in the distance before he looked at her and said, “Wait here.”

He moved out into the garden, then came back a few seconds later and gestured for her to follow him. The two of them backtracked to the street where they had abandoned the SUV. Two lookouts had been left behind, and Bucky quickly dispatched them before they could sound an alarm.

Darcy didn’t even flinch when he cut their throats.

The Hydra agents had somehow turned off all of the streetlights before pursuing them, which conveniently shielded Bucky and Darcy from prying eyes. She saw a curtain twitch, but no one came out to investigate – she doubted anyone had called 911, since the agents had appeared to be officers of the law if anyone had seen them.

Bucky walked down the street, quickly inspecting each vehicle until he found one that met his satisfaction, an old beater that looked like it was held together with duct tape and hope (completely ignoring the Mercedes S-Class and Volvo that were behind it). Darcy stood as lookout as he did something with his metal hand that opened the car door, then got in and used his hand again to start the vehicle.

“Neat trick,” Darcy said as she got in, “Very handy.”

Bucky just looked at her out of the corner of his eye when she made her pun, not amused.

She blinked back at him innocently. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

He sighed and pulled out into the street, but not before Darcy saw his mouth twitch.

Bucky drove them to the outskirts of the city, eventually abandoning the stolen car and continuing on foot. Darcy stuck close to him as they moved among tall, dark and empty buildings in various stages of construction.

The two of them didn’t come across a single person, which creeped Darcy out. If she didn’t know better, she would think that she had somehow entered a post-apocalyptic movie. She was the heroine and Bucky was the bad-ass warrior who saved her life, fell in love with her, and embarked on a personal quest with her to repopulate the world.

She was pulled out of her fantasy when a couple of stray cats ran across their path, almost tripping her. Bucky gripped her arm, steadying her as they stopped.

The building in front of them was tall like the others, but older, more run-down. The windows were cracked and broken, graffiti covered the walls, and the ground was littered with trash. A CONDEMNED notice on the wall next to the entrance gave further evidence that the building, unlike the surrounding structures, had been inhabited at some point.

Bucky opened the door (the terms “door” and “opened” being used loosely, as it was really a piece of wood hanging on by a single hinge) and looked expectantly at her.

“Are you waiting for an invitation?” He asked when she didn’t immediately go in.

Darcy looked askance at him, prompting him to say, “The development company ran out of money before they had a chance to knock this building down. It’s long been forgotten - Hydra will never look for us here.”

The apartment where he was hiding out had a scarred and beaten wooden door, an image that was ruined by the shiny new lock – and the array of surveillance and computer equipment she saw as she stepped inside and he locked the door behind them.

The apartment was studio-style, with a kitchenette and a single door that she assumed led to the bathroom. The room was sparsely populated with a single floor lamp, a rickety table with two chairs, and a bed. The room was illuminated by the lamp and the series of monitors on the kitchen counter, each of which displayed a different view of the inside and outside of the building. A laptop sat on the table.

“Where did you get all of this? How are you getting power without someone in the city noticing?” Darcy asked.

“I borrowed all of the equipment, along with a generator that is in the next room,” Bucky answered.

Anticipating her next question, he continued, “I get fuel from an old gas station that the construction workers used a few blocks over.”

“Internet?” Darcy asked, looking towards the laptop.

Bucky pointed to a black box on the table, which she recognized as a mobile hotspot.

“Let me guess, you “borrowed” that, too,” Darcy said sarcastically. Darcy assumed that “borrowed” was a euphemism for “stolen”.

He ignored her as he walked over to the table and sat down, opening the laptop.

Darcy took off her coat and draped it across the back of the second chair before sitting down. She amused herself for a few minutes by watching the video feeds, but quickly grew bored with that.

Bucky was still engrossed in whatever was on the laptop screen, so she took the opportunity to unabashedly stare at him. He looked better than the last time she had seen him. His hair was still long, but it was clean. His face only had a slight five o’clock shadow instead of a full scruff, and the dark circles under his eyes were less pronounced. Every inch of his body, including his cybernetic arm and hand, were covered in black leather, only marred by the occasional bullet hole.

She quickly looked away when he caught her staring at him.

“So…” she said, hoping to distract him, “Earlier, you said you would answer my questions.”

“I did.”

“Why is Hydra following me? What do they want?” she asked.

He sat back and looked at her for a second before finally answering, “Hydra is getting increasingly desperate to get me back - as you can imagine, they have a lot of targets they need eliminated to regain control.”

It went unspoken that Steve Rogers was one of those targets.

“Hydra is looking for leverage. I don’t have any surviving family, and they know that the only two people I have been in direct contact with are you and Rogers. Hydra knows that Rogers and I used to be friends, but he would be next to impossible to get to.”

Darcy winced when he said that he and Steve _used_ to be friends. It didn’t escape her notice that he referred to Steve as Rogers, as if saying Steve’s real name would indicate some sort of attachment or acknowledgement of his past and identity.

He didn’t see her movement, continuing, “After the hotel incident in D.C., Hydra assumes that you mean something to me, as well. You would be an easy target because there is no reason for anyone to suspect that Hydra would come after you.”

“Do I?” Darcy asked. When he gave her a confused look, she clarified, “Do I mean something to you?”

He shifted in his chair, not quite meeting her eyes as he answered, “I rescued you today, didn’t I?”

Darcy just smiled in response. It wasn’t a declaration that he had feelings – even of friendship – for her, but it was a start.

“How did you know they were coming after me tonight?” she asked, changing the subject.

He seemed relieved as he pointed to the laptop and answered, “Most Hydra communication channels have been shut down, but a few still exist. I was able to piggyback on a forgotten one, and saw their plans. I’ve actually been following you for a couple of days, but didn’t see anything suspicious until tonight.”

“I picked up a few skills besides murder during my years as the Winter Soldier,” he said sardonically, “If Hydra does notice that their signal is being hacked, I have this connection bounced around to so many satellites, their eyes will cross before they find us.”

“What’s your plan?” Darcy asked.

“We stay here tonight – tomorrow I will figure out a way to get you back to Stark Tower without Hydra interfering,” he said.

She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that he was so eager to get rid of her, but Darcy knew there was nothing else to be done. It wasn’t like she could just follow him around forever, and she would be safer with the Avengers than with Bucky alone.

When she didn’t say anything else, he assumed the conversation was over, and looked back down at the laptop.

Darcy was caught by surprise as she yawned. She had no way of knowing what time it was, but she knew it must be late, and apparently the stress of the night was starting to catch up to her.

“You should get some sleep,” Bucky said, nodding towards the bed. “I don’t need much sleep – and if I do, I will sleep on the floor.”

Darcy looked at him. Did she trust him enough to fall asleep in the same room, potentially leaving herself vulnerable? After a few seconds of deliberation, she shrugged and walked over and lay down on the bed, closing her eyes.

She was just starting to doze off when Bucky spoke again.

“You aren’t afraid of me.”

Darcy thought for a moment, then answered, “I’ve read about some of the things the Winter Soldier has done in the past – but Steve has also told me stories about Bucky Barnes, and I know the Winter Soldier is not all of who you are.”

She paused, then continued, “I know I should be afraid of you, and part of me is…but Steve trusts you, and that is good enough for me.”

“I have done nothing to earn it,” he replied.

Darcy didn’t respond – what could she say? She could try to convince him he was wrong until she was blue in the face, but the fact was – and she knew Steve knew this deep down, but didn’t want to admit it – Bucky had to figure out on his own that he wasn’t a bad person, that his actions as the Winter Soldier were out of his control and did not define him. Until that happened, it didn’t matter what anyone else said.

She fell asleep to the sound of him typing on the keyboard. Sometime later – it could have been minutes, it could have been hours, she wasn’t sure – Bucky shook her awake.

“Time to go,” he said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Bucky make some new "friends".

Darcy sat up and looked at Bucky, confused.

“What’s going on? Are we going to Stark Tower?” she asked. She could see through the window that it was still dark outside, so she couldn’t have slept for very long.

“No,” he said tersely.

Bucky moved towards the front door as he continued, “Hydra traced the connection. We don’t have long before they get here, so we need to move, NOW.”

Darcy scrambled out of bed, threw her coat on, and grabbed her glasses from the table. She waited for Bucky to check the hallway before following him downstairs and out the back entrance of the apartment building.

She groaned as he shut the door behind them, barely noticing that he was using his cybernetic arm to melt the doorknob. They were in an alley. AGAIN. Seriously, if she never saw another alley after this was over (she had started to make a mental list of all the things she was going to do once this was over), she would be happy.

Darkness surrounded them - there were no streetlights, and even if there had been, they wouldn’t have reached this far into the alley.

“Umm…exactly _how_ are we going to see where we are going?” Darcy asked.

“Night vision goggles. Stay close,” he muttered, grabbing her hand and leading her down the alley.

Moving blindly behind him, she stumbled more than once, but he always caught her before she could fall.

“Thank God,” Darcy whispered as the end of the alley came into view.

“Don’t celebrate yet,” Bucky cautioned.

As if on cue, a group of black SUV’s pulled up at the mouth of the alley, their headlights cutting through the darkness. Armed men in black tactical suits swarmed out of the vehicles, positioning themselves in a loose formation that effectively blocked any escape.

Bucky turned around and pulled her back the way they had just come from. When the other end of the alley came into sight in the distance, he stopped and muttered something under his breath. A group of vehicles and men blocked that entrance, as well.

The headlights on either end of the alley didn’t reach far enough to give away their position, but still provided enough light for Darcy to see that Bucky had stopped in front of the rear entrance to the apartment building. Escaping through the apartment building wasn’t an option, though - Bucky had melted the lock, and even if he hadn’t, Hydra was almost certainly already in the building and searching for them by now.

Darcy was starting to fear that they were trapped when Bucky touched her arm and pointed towards the apartment building. A metal ladder marked “Roof Access” was attached to the wall a few feet from the door. He ripped off his goggles and shoved them into his pocket with one hand as he approached the ladder.

The men at either end of the alley were starting to move, and she could hear someone banging on the door in front of them.

“No telling what’s up there. I’ll go first,” he said softly as he gripped a rung and began to climb up.

Darcy was right behind him. He set a fast pace, and before long she was sweating and praying she wouldn’t slip. A small explosion rocked the ladder when they were about half way up, and she almost lost her grip, but somehow managed to hold on. When Bucky looked down at her, she nodded to let him know she was okay, and he kept moving.

She looked down, searching for the source of the explosion. The men in the apartment building had apparently grown tired of trying to knock down the back door and had decided to blow it up instead. The light from the apartment building spilled out into the alley – they only had a few minutes at most before someone saw the ladder and figured out where they had gone.

She started climbing again, redoubling her efforts until she caught back up to Bucky. She didn’t look down again, even when she heard excited shouts below – apparently the gig was up.

She expected the men to start shooting at them, trying to force them back to the ground, but surprisingly, they didn’t fire their weapons and no one tried to follow them up the ladder. She started to feel uneasy – even if all of the men had re-entered the apartment building and run up the stairs, they would not reach the rooftop before Bucky and Darcy, and had a good chance of losing them. The rooftops in this area were fairly close from what she had seen, and even Darcy would be able to jump across them. What did these men know that Bucky and Darcy didn’t?

When they reached the top of the roof Bucky stopped so suddenly that Darcy nearly ran into him.

She heard the sound of guns cocking as someone said, “Step over the ledge, slowly. The girl, too.”

There were armed men below them and armed men above them – now they were truly trapped.

Out of options, Bucky pulled himself up and over the ledge before turning and helping Darcy. As soon as he saw that she could stand on her own, he moved in front of her and reached for his gun.

“I wouldn’t,” one of the men said, stepping forward. “Put the gun down, or we shoot the girl.”

Darcy looked down at her chest, where a group of red dots – that must be for dramatic effect, because she was pretty sure it would only take one to kill her – were clustered over her heart. She looked around and noticed that in addition to the large group of men on the rooftop with them, there were smaller groups of armed men on _every_ rooftop immediately around the apartment building. Apparently Hydra wasn’t taking any chances when it came to capturing Bucky.

Bucky looked back at her, and she could almost see the conflict brewing in his eyes as an internal battle waged between the part of him that was still the Winter Soldier and the part of him that was now Bucky Barnes. She knew without a doubt that the Winter Soldier would let them shoot her and use the distraction to escape. Bucky Barnes, on the other hand, couldn’t just leave her to die – he would stay and protect her, with his life if necessary.

Darcy held her breath as she waited to see what he would do, finally letting it out when after what seemed like an eternity, he turned around to face the men. He threw his gun on the ground and didn’t offer any resistance as a group of men moved forward and searched him. An impressive amount of weapons were piled on the roof before they stepped back and indicated they were done.

The only emotion Bucky showed was anger when a man moved her away from him. She could have sworn the man holding her stopped breathing when Bucky growled under his breath, but the moment passed quickly, and she was moved towards the main group. The man positioned her to where she was facing Bucky. Bucky shifted his weight, and the man pulled her against him and put a knife to her throat.

“Move and the girl dies,” he said. Darcy almost rolled her eyes. People said stuff like that in real life? She thought bad line like that only happened in the movies.

Bucky’s eyes burned with anger, but he stayed still and silent.

“Franz, Franz! Let the poor girl go. That’s no way to treat a guest,” another voice said as the roof access door opened behind Franz and Darcy.

The knife was lowered from her throat as a blond-haired, medium height man in a military uniform stepped in front of Darcy. He gave her a welcoming smile – at least she thought it was supposed to be welcoming, all it did was give her the creeps – as he extended his hand towards her.

“Welcome, Miss Lewis. I am Baron Wolfgang von Strucker.”

Darcy didn’t move to take his hand, and Baron von Strucker shook his head as he asked, “For shame, Miss Lewis. Where are your manners?”

He suddenly reached his hand back and slapped her across the face, knocking her head back. Darcy blinked back tears as he looked at her again, his expression still pleasant.

He was the worst sort of villain – he appeared to be a gentleman, but he was obviously really a psycho.

“Leave her out of this. I’ll come with you,” Bucky said.

“All in good time, Mr. Barnes – it is Mr. Barnes, isn’t it? Calling you Winter Soldier seems so pretentious, and I daresay the secret of your identity is no longer a secret,” Von Strucker said, glancing at Bucky.

He turned back to Darcy, once again extending his hand as he said, “Now, Miss Lewis, shall we try this again? I’m Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all yours,” Darcy said defiantly, still refusing to take his hand.

For a moment she thought he was going to hit her again, but he surprised her by shrugging his shoulders and lowering his hand as he said, “Very well.”

“Franz, escort Miss Lewis and Mr. Barnes down to the car, quickly – we don’t want Captain America or any of his colorful friends to show up.”

Franz moved back to Darcy and grabbed her arm tightly before turning her towards the roof access door.

“Let’s go,” he said as he motioned for Bucky to go ahead of them.

“One wrong move by either of them, shoot Miss Lewis in the head,” Von Strucker added, almost as an afterthought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys like the direction this is going in. Please let me know if it seems predictable, or the pacing is off, etc, and I will try to fix it - the feedback provided on the last chapter helped me make an important change, the words in my head don't always come out the way they should!
> 
> Thank you for the comments, kudos, and bookmarks. I hope you enjoyed this, and stick with me until the end of the line (sorry, but not sorry).


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky and Darcy go for a ride.

Franz herded Darcy and Bucky down the stairs to a large SUV idling at the curb. Bucky was forced into the third row of seats, a guard on either side of him, with Darcy being held outside to ensure his cooperation.

Once they were settled in, Franz took a zip tie out of his pocket and moved behind her, pulling her wrists together behind her back.

“Secure her hands in front of her,” Von Stucker said as he stepped around them and got into the vehicle.

“It’s a long ride, and I don’t want to her complain the entire way,” he continued.

Franz secured her hands as directed, then covered her head with a black hood so she wouldn’t be able to see where they were going. She didn’t really see the point – the odds that she was going to survive this situation were low – but whatever.

Franz guided her into the SUV and sat on her other side, effectively sandwiching her between himself and Von Strucker. She shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable, but she couldn’t steady herself, and she almost fell on her face as the vehicle began to move. Franz snickered as he pulled her back into the seat.

Darcy glared in his general direction even though she knew he couldn’t see her.

After a few minutes, Darcy could feel sweat beading on her brow and running down her back. The interior of the SUV was hot and stifling, especially with the hood over her head.

“Does this SUV have air conditioning, or….?” she asked.

No one replied, but a few seconds later, she felt cool air and sighed in relief.

“You’re doing splendid, Miss Lewis,” Von Stucker said, lightly squeezing her knee. He chuckled as Darcy jerked away from him.

Darcy desperately wanted to say something snarky, but managed - with no small amount of effort – to keep silent for the rest of the ride. She had absolutely no doubts that Von Strucker would have her gagged if he needed to, and she was miserable enough as it was.

Only two things were providing her any level of comfort – knowing that Bucky was with her, and the weight of her taser in her coat pocket. Von Strucker obviously hadn’t considered that she might have a weapon on her, because he hadn’t ordered her searched. She held her breath every time he shifted in his seat, praying he wouldn’t accidentally bump into it and decide to investigate.

It wasn’t much longer before they stopped. Franz pulled her out, his ever-present gun held to her temple. The bag was left on her head and her wrists were still secured as Franz guided her up a set of stairs and into their final destination.

She didn’t know how far they walked before she was roughly shoved into a room and the door slammed shut behind her. She opened her mouth to protest, but closed it as her momentum propelled her into a warm body. A pair of familiar hands – one warm, one cool – wrapped around her forearms, steadying her.

Bucky pulled the hood from her head and threw it onto the ground. Darcy blinked, disoriented, as her vision filled with light. Once she could see again, she focused on freeing her hands, using one hand to tighten the zip tie before slamming her wrists down onto her leg as hard as possible. She crowed with joy as the tie snapped.

She looked up at Bucky, grinning as she saw he looked mildly impressed. His impressed look gave way to confusion, however, when she said, “It actually worked! Thank God for YouTube!”

“YouTube?” he asked.

“Forget about it,” she said as she impulsively threw her arms around him, hugging him. Bucky froze, unused to such an outward display of affection, but hugged her back after a few seconds.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she said into his chest. She was hugging him because she wanted to, but she was also hugging him so she could avoid looking around her for as long as possible.

Bucky must have sensed that, gently disengaging himself and moving away from her.

Darcy was finally forced to acknowledge her surroundings. The room reminded her of a dungeon; it was dark, damp, and smelled unpleasant. Wires ran over most of the floor, culminating in the center of the room. A black metal chair, almost like the chairs in a dentist’s office, was surrounded by a variety of monitors and other things she couldn’t quite identify.

When she shivered, it wasn’t from the cold.

“What is that thing? Do you know where we are?” she asked.

Bucky’s face was expressionless as he walked over to the chair and stood in front of it. He stared at it for a moment before finally answering, “We’re in a Hydra safe house outside of West Chester.”

He gestured at the chair and machines as he continued, “This is the machine Zola invented to “reprogram” people. It uses electricity to change a person’s brain waves.”

“Similar to electroshock therapy?” Darcy asked.

“Yes, except Hydra goes one step further. Zola figured out a way to not only wipe old memories, but to also create new ones and distort the truth,” Bucky answered.

“How – how many times did they do this to you?” Darcy asked.

Bucky shrugged. He seemed unconcerned, but she could see the pain deep in his eyes as he said “Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t remember – I just remember impressions of pain, followed by freezing cold.”

“They would wipe you before they refroze you,” she said.

He nodded, his eyes focusing on the chair again. Darcy stepped closer to him and put her hand on his arm.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

Bucky turned and met her eyes.

Darcy squeaked with surprise when he abruptly pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She quickly recovered and was just starting to return the kiss when he pulled back slightly. He moved his lips over to her ear as he whispered, “We’re being watched. Do you still have your taser?”

Darcy felt a sharp bite of disappointment – unlike her, he sounded completely unaffected by the kiss. It took her a second to clear her head, but then she turned her face into his as she whispered, “Yes – in my coat.”

“I’m going to kiss you again. When I do, move the taser from your coat into your pants.”

Darcy put her hand on his chest and he kissed her again. It was a little hard to focus, but she managed to do as he asked – to anyone watching, it would have just looked as if she was running her hand down his chest, then moving it lower for a more intimate caress.

She had barely gotten the taser into the pocket of her jeans when the door opened and she heard Von Strucker say, “Am I interrupting something?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I revised the last two chapters slightly to include her coat, which I had forgotten about.
> 
> I have discussed the implausibility of someone securing your hands in front of you and of actually breaking a zip tie by slamming it on your knee with a friend. Someone else I knew wanted to try it on himself and see if it actually worked, but couldn’t find a long enough zip tie – so who knows? I thought it would be fun to include it, though, because I saw it on Tumblr. They can't put anything that isn't true on the internet (Bonjour!).


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Von Strucker has a problem, and Darcy and Bucky discuss feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is heavy on the talk, light on action. I realized after a few comments that I haven’t adequately explained why Darcy means so much to Bucky yet; instead of going back and rewriting parts of the story, I decided to add this chapter instead. I hope that it still fits into the flow of the story and it's not too sappy. I promise we will return to our regularly scheduled programming next chapter, and I think the story will be better for it. *hides*.

Bucky’s lips lingered on Darcy’s a few seconds longer before he lifted his head and met Von Strucker’s gaze. Darcy tried to pull away from Bucky, but he tightened his grip, anchoring her to him.

“Baron Von Strucker,” a Hydra agent said from the doorway, “We have a situation.”

Von Strucker gritted his teeth as he turned towards the agent, annoyed by the interruption.

“Can’t someone else handle it? I’m a little busy here,” he said irritably.

A dozen heavily armed men walked past the agent and took up various positions around the room.

The agent’s eyes looked back and forth between the guards and Von Strucker as he continued, his voice shaking, “One of the men noticed a junior agent transmitting an unauthorized encrypted message. We intercepted the message, but there is a chance that we didn’t catch it in time.”

He paused, then finished, “The message, which contained our location, was intended to be sent to an IP address at Stark Tower.”

“A _chance_?” Von Strucker repeated.

The agent nodded.

Von Strucker cursed. “Where is the traitor now?”

“In the communications center. We only restrained him, we knew you would want to deal with it yourself,” he answered.

“I’ll deal with the traitor,” Von Strucker agreed, motioning for the agent to precede him out the door as he instructed, “Gather the technicians and tell them to meet me in this room within the next five minutes – this location is the only one within miles that has the equipment we need, and we don’t have time to move it.”

As the door closed, locking Bucky and Darcy in with the armed guards, Darcy heard Von Strucker say, “No matter how much of the transmission went through, we should expect that it is now a question of when, not if, the Avengers will find us.”

Bucky finally let Darcy go, and she stepped back, hugging herself.

“That’s good, right? I mean…not good for the traitor, but good for us? We just have to wait for the Avengers to find us, and we’ll be okay,” she babbled, looking at the chair.

“The price of freedom is high,” Bucky said, almost reciting the words, as if he had them memorized.

Darcy gave him a curious look, then sighed and said, “You really know how to make a girl feel better, you know that?”

Bucky gave her another of his blank stares.

“Forget it,” she muttered.

It was hot in the room – or maybe it was just her, since she was surrounded by big guys wearing leather who weren’t even breaking a sweat – so she removed her jacket and in lieu of a place to hang it, swung it over one of the monitors. She swore she heard one of the guards snicker, but when she looked around, they were as still and solemn as the guards at Buckingham Palace.

She turned back to Bucky. He was still standing next to her, clenching and unclenching his fists as his gaze bounced from the guards, to the equipment, and back to her.

“Bucky,” she said.

He looked at her expectantly, and Darcy thought quickly. He needed a distraction, they possibly only had minutes to live (a bit of an exaggeration, but you never know), and she had nothing to lose, so she took a deep breath and asked something that had been bothering her since they first met.

“Why me?”

When he didn’t immediately answer, she pushed forward, “Since the day we met, there has been this... _thing_ between us. First, you wanted to take me with you at the hotel; then, I find out you were following me to protect me from a threat I didn’t even know existed; and finally, you didn’t leave me, even when you _should_ have, over and over…why?”

Bucky ran his hand through his hair and let out an aggravated sigh.

“Do we have to do this now, Darcy?” he asked, gesturing at their surroundings, including the guards watching their every move.

“Do you have something better to do?” she answered, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Bucky began to pace back and forth. Finally, he stopped in front of her, meeting her gaze head-on.

"This isn't easy for me...as you know, it has been a long time since I've felt, much less expressed, anything resembling emotions. Once I start, I need to finish, or I might not be able to," he said.

She nodded.

“You are one of the bravest people I have ever met,” he said, “You had the audacity to use your taser on one of the world’s deadliest assassins without batting an eyelash. You feel fear, but hide it, even when I followed you to your hotel room and practically took you hostage, or when I pulled you into an alley and basically kidnapped you, dragging you around the city and taking you to parts unknown with no idea of my intentions. You faced down Von Strucker on that rooftop, and have managed to hold yourself together, even now, against all odds.”

He stepped closer to her, so close that his breath moved the wisps of hair on her forehead, before continuing, “I have never given you a reason to, but you both trust me and believe I will protect you based solely on the word of a friend.”

He looked away for a moment, then said, “Rogers…he means well, but I think he doesn’t always realize how hard it will be for me to fit in, that I can’t just snap my fingers and remember who I am, and what our friendship meant.

He gave Darcy a warning look when she opened her mouth, ready to defend Steve.

“You believe in me and you accept me as I am, not who I was or who I may be again. I feel comfortable around you.”

He stopped for a moment, and Darcy waited with bated breath, hoping he wasn’t done. Everything he had said so far was great, but for the most part, he could have been describing a dog, or maybe a favorite blanket or comfortable pair of shoes.

He reached out and wrapped one of her curls around his fingers, staring at it as he finished, “You are beautiful, smart, reckless, and independent. The way you look at me…it makes me feel like I can be more than just an assassin, a weapon to bought by the highest bidder. You give me hope, make me want to be something else, someone else – someone that could have a place in your heart someday…just as you have a place in mine.”

He met her eyes again. “I care about you, Darcy, and assuming we survive whatever happens in the next few minutes, I want to have the chance to find out if you care for me, too.”

“Darcy?” He asked, a look of uncertainty crossing his face when she just stared at him, the breath knocked out of her lungs.

She was speechless, so she showed her feelings the only way she could at that moment - she reached up and pulled his head down, kissing him. She continued kissing him, even when she heard the door unlock and a new group of voices entered the room, Von Strucker’s among them.

This time, he kissed her back.


	7. Chapter 7

“Well, now I’m _definitely_ interrupting something,” Von Strucker said dryly.

Bucky broke off the kiss and looked in the direction of the doorway, where Von Strucker stood with a group of men in white coats and a score of guards.

One of the guards who had heard Bucky’s confession to Darcy sidled over to Von Strucker and began to whisper into his ear. Von Strucker listened eagerly, his eyes lighting up and his grin growing wider as the guard continued to talk.

Bucky took advantage of Von Strucker’s inattention to whisper one last thing into Darcy’s ear.

“When the time is right, I’ll create a distraction, and you escape,” he said, releasing her and stepping away.

Darcy grabbed his arm, stopping him. “I’m not going to leave you.”

“Yes, you will,” he replied, his tone and the look in his eyes indicating the matter was not open for discussion.

Darcy opened her mouth to retort, but glanced towards Von Strucker and closed it, not wanting him to notice their exchange; she glared at Bucky instead, but he remained resolute.

The guard moved back to his position along the wall, apparently finished ratting them out. Von Strucker motioned to the group in the doorway, and the new guards and technicians entered the room; the guards filled the gaps around the perimeter, while the technicians moved to run last minute checks on their equipment.

Franz, who had been hanging back in the hallway, entered last. He grabbed Darcy’s arm and pulled her to the side, leaving Bucky in the center of the room.

“Did you miss me?” he asked her.

“Like a root canal,” Darcy answered.

He saw her wrists were unbound, then noticed the remnants of the zip tie.

“Quite enterprising, aren’t you? Maybe Von Strucker will let me keep you once this is over,” Franz breathed into her ear, a grotesque parody of her exchange with Bucky.

Darcy shuddered.

“Enough,” Von Strucker said sharply.

Franz nodded curtly; satisfied Franz was done, Von Strucker looked back and forth between Darcy and Bucky.

“I just heard a _very_ interesting tale, Mr. Barnes; I knew you had a soft spot for Miss Lewis, but I wasn’t aware of _how_ soft a spot it was. You want to build a future with her…how sweet”, he said, sneering.

He waited for a reaction, but when none was forthcoming, he clasped his hands behind his back and continued, “We’ll get back to the matter of you and Miss Lewis in a moment, Mr. Barnes. We have some pressing matters to discuss first, and time grows short.”

Bucky stood in the center of the room, as still as a statue, his eyes burning into Von Strucker.

“Now, more than ever, we require your services,” Von Strucker expounded, “Captain America and his band of so-called “Avengers” think we are defeated – but we are merely laying low, letting them think we have been beaten.”

Darcy had to admit, the guy knew how to work a crowd. Von Strucker paused for dramatic effect, grinning in approval as the room resounded with cries of “Hail, Hydra!”

She rolled her eyes.

“We have already set our plans into motion…but a few require a certain skill set. We have tried to find someone to replace you…but in the end, they always fail. We need the Winter Soldier,” he continued.

“I’m retired,” Bucky said tersely.

Von Stucker pursed his lips.

“I’ve heard. Let me rephrase my words…you _will_ voluntarily submit yourself for reprogramming and resume your position as the Winter Soldier.”

“If you do this, I will let Miss Lewis go,” he continued, obviously lying.

“Refuse, and we will kill her in front of you, slowly and painfully…and you’ll do it anyway.”

Silence. Bucky’s eyes flicked to her.

Darcy shook her head at him and said, “Don’t. We both know they’re going to kill me, anyway.”

“I’ll do it,” Bucky said, returning his gaze to Von Strucker, “Let her go first.”

Darcy closed her eyes. Why did he have to be so damn noble?

“I don’t think so, do you?” Von Strucker said, gesturing for a few of the guards to get Bucky into the chair.

“It was worth a try,” Bucky said.

Three of the largest guards surrounded Bucky. Bucky didn’t resist, letting them guide him towards the chair. When he was sure that Von Strucker couldn’t see him, and the guards were sufficiently distracted getting him to the chair, he glanced sideways at Darcy and mouthed a single word.

“Now.”

What was he – oh.

Bucky suddenly threw himself into the closest guard; the two men slammed into the chair, knocking it on its side and causing some of the monitors and machines to crash to the ground. The other two guards joined the fray, jumping on top of Bucky to subdue him, while the guards around the room cocked their weapons and looked to Von Strucker for guidance.

“Don’t shoot!!! Don’t shoot!” Von Strucker shouted, “We need him alive!

It wasn’t much of a contest; Bucky didn’t need a weapon to be effective, he _was_ a weapon. He threw the now unconscious – or dead, she wasn’t sure which – guards off and stood up.

Von Strucker signaled another group of guards, who began to circle Bucky, trying to find a weak point. Bucky waited a few seconds, then attacked, slamming the head of the biggest guard into a piece of equipment before taking on the others.

Darcy took advantage of the distraction to stomp her heel into Franz’s foot, slamming her elbow into his stomach at the same time. He let out a soft Oomph and let her go. Darcy reached into her pocket and began to pull out her taser; she was about to turn around and let Franz have it when a sharp pain ripped through her shoulder. She gasped, letting go, and the taser fell back into her pocket.

“No!” Bucky shouted.

Everything seemed to stop, and the room fell silent.

Darcy stared down at her shoulder, shocked to see a red spot blooming and starting to spread. The pain hit her suddenly, and she groaned, stumbling back towards the wall. Breathing heavily and trying not to pass out, she looked up to see who had shot her and saw Von Strucker standing there, a smoking gun pointed towards her heart.

“That one was in the shoulder. The next one will be in the heart. Do we have an understanding, Mr. Barnes?” Von Strucker said.

Bucky stopped struggling. Two guards restrained him, while the rest cautiously stepped back, keeping a wary eye on the assassin.

“Yes,” he bit out, his eyes cold.

“Now that we’ve sorted that out,” Von Strucker said, “Franz, make sure Miss Lewis doesn’t bleed out or go into shock. She won’t be any use to me if she’s dead.”

He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and threw it to Franz, who shoved the square of cloth into Darcy’s good hand.

“Put pressure on it,” he said roughly.

Darcy obeyed, almost passing out again from the pain.

“Is the equipment salvageable?” Von Strucker said impatiently, refocusing on Bucky.

A guard righted the chair while the technicians checked the electrical connections and monitors, then turned the remaining machines on and waited for them to successfully power up. When a technician finally nodded at him, Von Strucker motioned towards the chair with his gun.

“You know what to do, Mr. Barnes.”

Bucky didn’t look at Darcy as he let the guards maneuver him into the chair, which wobbled but stayed upright. One guard strapped him in, while another forced his mouth open and inserted a rubber mouthpiece. A technician moved over to the control console, then looked to Von Strucker for confirmation.

Von Strucker nodded, and the technician flipped a switch. The machine closed on Bucky’s arms and legs, holding him in place, and panels grasped either side of his head. The technician then pushed a button, and electric current began to run through the machine and into Bucky’s body…and the screaming started.

Darcy had never heard a more horrible sound – and no one else seemed to be bothered by it, Von Strucker even looking like he was enjoying it. Tears streamed down her face, and she moved towards Bucky, ignoring the pain in her arm, only to be stopped short by Franz.

Darcy was just starting to flex the fingers of her injured hand, preparing to angle herself to reach her taser again, when the screaming stopped. The process was done.

The machine detached from Bucky, and he laid there for a minute, blinking at the ceiling, before he sat up, his gaze immediately going to Von Stucker.

“You have a mission for me, sir?” he asked.

Von Strucker grinned. “Good to see you again, Winter Soldier.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know things look gloomy now, but I promise it will be okay. There is one chapter and an epilogue left, and then everything will be wrapped up neatly in the third part of the series.
> 
> Thanks for the feedback and comments, they have provided a lot of ideas that I never would have thought of otherwise. Keep them coming!


	8. Chapter 8

Von Strucker pointed to Darcy as he said, “I do have an important mission for you, but I have a more immediate problem I need you to take care of.”

Bucky’s gaze moved to Darcy, and her heart sank. Bucky’s eyes were cold, emotionless – it was no longer Bucky Barnes in front of her – instead, it was the Winter Soldier.

“Bucky? It’s me, Darcy,” she tried anyway. There was no recognition in his eyes, he just continued to look at her.

Franz stepped back and released her as Von Strucker said, “Kill the girl.”

Just as the Winter Soldier got up, an explosion rocked the structure above them, and the door opened as a guard rushed into the room.

“Sir, it’s the Avengers! The Avengers are here!” he said, panicking.

“Time to go,” Von Strucker said, moving towards the door. When Franz moved to follow, he stopped him and said, “No. You stay here and make sure he finishes the job, then bring him to me – you’ll know where I am.”

Franz didn’t look happy, but he bowed his head and stepped back.

“Be quick about it,” he said to the Winter Soldier before he rushed out of the room, a number of the guards following him until it was just Franz, Darcy, two goons, and the Winter Soldier in the room.

The Winter Soldier moved quicker than she would have thought possible, his metal hand grasping her by the throat.

“Bucky,” she managed to squeeze out, trying to reach him one last time. When that didn’t work, she kicked at him, connecting with his groin. He didn’t double over in pain – his armor must have protected him, but he did grunt, and his grip loosened enough for her to take a desperate gasp of air.

An explosion sounded down the hallway, and Franz moved closer, holding his gun up.

“Finish her, or I will,” he hissed.

The events of the next few seconds happened quickly.

The Winter Soldier renewed his grip. Just as Darcy’s vision was starting to turn black, she heard shouting. The Winter Soldier’s eyes flicked towards the door, and Darcy somehow gathered the strength to pull her taser out of the pocket and discharge it in his neck.

He released her and fell to the ground, twitching for a moment before laying still. Darcy fell to her knees, gasping for air.

Franz raised his gun to shoot her, but was propelled across the room as a shield hit his back before he could get off a shot. He hit the wall and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Darcy began to cry when she looked up and saw Steve standing there. She had never been so glad to see someone in her entire life.

Steve moved towards her, but the two remaining guards decided to take that moment to escape. As Steve gave them the same treatment as Franz, Darcy pulled herself together and crawled over to Bucky.

“He’s not breathing,” she said, panicked. She could smell ozone in the air, and burnt flesh – two massive electric shocks in a row must have stopped his heart.

Steve pushed her aside – luckily, he didn’t hit her injured shoulder – and started to do chest compressions.

“Come on, Buck,” he said.

Someone – she vaguely registered that it was Tony – tried to pull her away, but she refused to be moved.

“No,” she choked out.

She reached out and took Bucky’s hand, willing him to be okay.

To her immense relief, Bucky’s hand twitched in hers after a few sets of compressions, and he gasped as his lungs filled with air. He opened his eyes and looked up.

“Steve?”

“Yeah, Buck, it’s me,” Steve answered, looking like he was going to cry. Bucky struggled to sit up, but managed to with Steve’s help. He seemed groggy, disoriented.

He looked to see who was holding his hand, his eyes filled with a mixture of emotions when he saw it was her.

“Darcy…I’m sorry...” he said, his voice slightly slurred.

Darcy was so relieved, she began to cry again as all at once, the emotions of the last two days hit her – the fear, the worry, and now that she didn’t have anything to focus on, the pain.

Steve let out a curse – Captain America cursed, things are serious now, she thought, giggling – as he noticed her gunshot wound, which had started to bleed again in the scuffle.

“Tony, Darcy’s hurt. We need medical assistance, now,” he said.

Tony took a closer look at Darcy, who had started to turn white as a sheet, then immediately shouted into his earpiece, “I need a medic in here, now. We have two injured people, one of who has lost a large amount of blood.

Darcy stopped crying abruptly as she began to feel dizzy, and then really sleepy.

“I think I’ll lie down now,” she said, falling onto her uninjured side.

The last thing she heard before succumbing to the darkness was three panicked voices calling her name.

 

* * *

Darcy regained consciousness slowly. She didn’t open her eyes at first, trying to figure out where she was. She could hear voices, the sounds of beeping monitors. A hospital? Had she been in a coma? How long had she been out?

She was suddenly aware of another noise – the distinctive sounds of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” filled the room.  Sam Wilson must be there – Steve had told her that Sam had been with him in his hospital room, playing this exact song, when he woke up after the incident in D.C.

“Do you have a coma playlist or something?” she said weakly as she opened her eyes and looked at Sam.

Sam looked up from his book and smiled.

“Welcome back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will wrap everything up, including Darcy and Bucky's relationship (including why Sam was there instead of Bucky when she woke up), in the third part to the series, You Complete Me. I could have added more to this part, but I really, really wanted to use that title :). Unless I get inspired in the next couple days, it will be a few weeks, because I am going to Ireland this upcoming weekend (yay!).
> 
> As always, thank you so much for the kudos and comments - they really encourage me to write and helped make this a better story.


End file.
